Jealous
by der kapitan
Summary: Clove is not someone who gets jealous, so she's not quite sure what she's dealing with when her stomach churns at the sight of Cato and Glimmer together. Cato/Clove, Marvel/Glimmer; slight Cato/Glimmer
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: Sometimes Tumblr makes me a hardcore Clato shipper when really I should not be focusing on how ships make me sob hysterically, but on my growing homework pile.

Oh well; you Clato shippers appreciate me, don't you? ;_;

* * *

><p><strong>Jealous<br>**a _Hunger Games_ (© Suzanne Collins) fanfiction

* * *

><p>Clove is not someone who gets jealous.<p>

And why should she be? She's one of the quickest in all of District 2, her knife skills are envied by people twice her age and three times her size, and she's a Career tribute - which means she's certain to win the 74th Hunger Games.

Clove is not someone who gets jealous, so she's not quite sure what she's dealing with when her stomach churns at the sight of Cato and Glimmer together. She's not sure what the constricting feeling in her chest is when she sees the smiley tribute from District 1 place a hand on his arm, when he grins down at her in return. She's not sure what she's doing when she finds herself glaring after the duo as they head down the hallway together after the interviews.

When she glances over at the boy from District 1, and when she sees the sullen - almost pathetic - expression on his face, and when she realizes she's making the same face, she knows.

"You look happy," she states frankly when he walks in for dinner, bearing a grin that stretches across his face. She stabs through her steak with a little more fervor than usual.

"You look like you're ready to kill," he replies, more teasing than mocking, as he takes the seat across from her. She smiles at him, and even though it's sarcastic he returns it.

"Negotiations with Glimmer are coming along well?" their mentor asks, interrupting their banter.

Clove's head raises at this, and she shoots a questioning glance in the blond tribute's direction; he doesn't even look at her. "Negotiations with Glimmer? What are you talking about?"

Their mentor almost looks annoyed by the question, as though she has no place asking, but the flickering irritation in the knife wielder's eyes keeps him from saying anything. Cato, however, has no qualms about informing her of the plan. "An on-screen romance between two Careers. It worked well enough for the lovers in District 12, so why not give ourselves a little boost as well?" He's grinning again, and she's never had a stronger urge to cut it off. "A tragic love story between two Careers, each from a different district - the Capitol will love it!"

"You look like you're enjoying it, too." She doesn't mean to sound as spiteful as she actually does, but when she notices, it's too late.

Cato's eyebrows shoot up towards his hairline. Then, the corners of his lips curl upwards slyly. "What's the matter, Clove?" he croons. "Jealous?"

Before he can even really finish the word, her steak knife is embedded into the visible strip of wood between himself and his plate. When she gets up and dismisses herself without a word, their mentor sighs and shakes his head, muttering something about hormonal teenagers.

Cato, while mildly shocked at the reaction, grins.

Later that night, Clove is returning from a short trip to the kitchen when she hears a familiar giggle from around the corner. She steps into the hallway just in time to see Glimmer inching out of Cato's room, with her arms wrapped teasingly around his neck. "I should go," she whispers alluringly, tugging him down to her. Before they can do anything (or anymore), Clove clears her throat.

"Yeah, you should probably go," she suggests, in a tone that refuses to be questioned.

Both blondes reel back, though Glimmer looks much more frightened than Cato; he's just grinning, as usual. "Oh, Clove," the older female greets, trying to smile congenially. "Sorry, I was just asking Cato a question about our strategy." When Clove says nothing, only staring at her stonily, Glimmer quietly slips away, waving her fingers flirtatiously at Cato when she's sure that Clove can't see.

"Doing some preparation for your love story?" Again, the question is much more spiteful than she plans, but by now the two are already aware that her feelings for the operation are less than accepting. "Some early research?"

He leans against the door frame coolly as he folds his arms across his chest, completely unperturbed by the interrogate. "She's hot," is all that he says, and Clove can feel her blood boil. Glimmer is all curves and curls and smiles - she is beautiful, and everything that someone expects from a Career tribute. Clove has always been small, with the curves that her mother promised never really coming in and her height never exceeding below average. She is quick and deadly, but she is not the sexy main character of a love story.

"You're a pig."

Cato actually looks surprised at the insult, and Clove realizes that she has stepped over a line. "We're going into an arena where all but one of us dies, Clove," he says sensibly. "In a couple of days, most of us will be dead. In a month, only one of us will be standing."

He's standing toe-to-toe with her now, and she hates how much she has to crane her neck back to keep eye contact with him. She knows what he wants to say - that he will be the victor, that he will bring victory back to District 2. She also knows the underlying meaning, and why he won't say it - because that means that she will be dead.

"We might as well enjoy ourselves a little bit," he murmurs. His fingers are grasping her chin, his breath is fanning across her face, his lips are closing in on hers -

She shoves him away, so that he collides with the wall. His eyes and his mouth are wide; he is not used to rejection, not even from crazy knife-throwing girls. "I'm not something you just have fun with when you want to entertain yourself," she snarls, fists clenching at her sides. She storms off in the direction of her room, but before she can make it, her body is shoved up against the wall, and his long, toned arms are imprisoning her. "Cato!" she screeches, trying to shove him away, but to no avail. He is all hard, lean muscle, and when he stands his ground, she knows she has no chance of escaping.

The same playful look has returned to his face. "You know, Clove, jealousy on girls usually isn't very attractive. It's annoying." She clenches her jaw, resisting the urge to take out a knife and plunge it into his arm. "But on you it's almost… cute."

Cute. He called her cute. Glimmer is hot and sexy and beautiful and bewitching and alluring and gorgeous - and Clove is cute.

"Stop comparing yourself to other girls." She thinks he can read her mind, but now she's aware that he's probably reading her face. She flushes, embarrassed that she has let herself go so much, and Cato smirks, obviously pleased with himself. He says nothing, and half of her expects him to lean in to kiss her again (and a small portion of that _hopes_ that he does), but he pushes himself away from the wall. He's wearing a forlorn expression that she cannot understand. "We should get to bed. We have to get up early tomorrow."

She nods silently and watches as he retreats into his room. He glances at her over his shoulder before closing the door.

Clove allows her heart to pound in her chest and her cheeks to flush, but only for a moment. Then she storms into her room, throws herself onto her bed, and buries herself in her sheets, trying to forget everything - the jealousy, Glimmer's giggle, Cato's arms, his eyes, his words.

She tries to forget, because she knows that two people cannot win the Hunger Games.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note:

So this really was just supposed to be a one shot but I kind of like the idea of it, sooo, here this is. Also, this was supposed to be more Cato than Glarvel but _I can't help it_ because I just have Career feels everywhere.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed/favorited/alerted(?) the first installment of this. I may or may not add to this later on, but I'll keep it as complete for now just in case.

I also like really ambiguous endings, oops.

* * *

><p><strong>Jealous<br>**a _Hunger Games_ (© Suzanne Collins) fanfiction**  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Marvel sees the way Clove looks at Cato and Glimmer. He sees the hate in her eyes, the bitterness in her scowl, the irritation that write itself across her brow every time the two are together. Truth be told, it isn't entirely unlike his own expression.<p>

Unlike him, though, Clove does very little to disguise her jealousy. Marvel notices because he has always been able to read people well (and, he'd grudgingly admit, because he is in the same position). Glimmer notices because she has dealt with jealous girls before, and though she may fear Clove, she probably enjoys teasing her more. Cato certainly notices because, while his arms are wrapped around the blonde and his lips are whispering sweet nothings into her ear, his eyes are always on Clove.

He thinks it's a sick romance in a twisted fairytale.

"You shouldn't let your emotions affect you so much," he says poignantly one day when he and Clove are paired up to hunt. Though she doesn't reply, he sees her shoulders tense and her fists clench. The previous night, Clove was using her knives as darts and when one barely when whizzing past Glimmer's ear, she made the claim that she missed a lizard. It would have been easier to believe were it not for the simple fact that Clove doesn't miss. "Someone could… Anyone could get hurt."

"I can take care of myself," she snaps.

"I wasn't talking about you." When she stops walking, he makes sure to put space between them; he doesn't doubt she'd have no qualms about killing him and making it look like an accident. She isn't quite glaring, but the look she gives him sends shivers down his spine.

"Oh yeah?" she asks, an edge in her voice. "You're watching your own back, huh? Or…" The way she leers at him makes him forget that he's taller than her until she steps away, but even then she manages to look condescending. "Or just pathetic."

She's already walking away when he finally recovers from the shock, and he has to jog to catch up with her. "_I'm_ pathetic?" he hisses heatedly. "I'm not the one throwing knives at the girl I'm jeal-"

Clove spins and pushes him back so suddenly that he actually falls onto his back. "Shut the hell up." Fear bubbles in his stomach when she hovers over him, dark eyes flashing dangerously. She's grinning, but there's nothing friendly behind it. "You don't know what you're talking about. So shut the hell up."

He waits until she starts walking before he stands back up. He brushes the leaves and twigs off his clothes as he carefully follows her. Clove is definitely a Career tribute, deadly and vicious and set on winning. The fact she's small and young doesn't affect her at all; if anything, it fuels her drive and makes her a more dangerous package. Marvel has seen her vulnerability, though, and he knows that she isn't invincible.

Later that night, after they skewer their dinner and sit around the fire, Marvel watches as Cato grabs Clove by her upper arm (his fingers wrap entirely around it once) and drags her away. He watches as she protests and bites at him, as the fire lights up in his eyes, as they both yell and say terrible things to each other before completely disappearing into the brush. Out of the corner of his eye, he watches Glimmer, who doesn't look the least bit bothered by what just happened.

"I'd think both of them were cute," she begins in an ironic tone, "if both weren't so stupid."

He raises his eyebrows. "But you and Cato -"

Glimmer's glower is much sharper than Clove's. "I know _you_ aren't stupid, Marvel." He senses a double meaning behind her words, feels his cheeks heat up in embarrassment. She doesn't laugh at or mock him, though; she just smiles sadly into the fire. "Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I hadn't've volunteered. If I hadn't been training for these Games my entire life. I wonder what kind of life I would have, who I would marry, if I'd have kids, if I'd be working… Sometimes I think it'd be nice to just be… normal, I guess."

Marvel doesn't quite understand because he doesn't really know what normal _is_. For him - for all the families and children of Panem - normal is the Hunger Games. Normal is waiting for your child's name to be put in the reaping bowl. Normal is watching with baited breath as the escort pulls out names of the damned. Normal is sending children to the slaughterhouse. Everything that Glimmer wants is _abnormal_, to be honest.

"I guess you wouldn't get it," she sighs, shoulders drooping.

"I do," he says without thinking. He's never thought of getting married or having children or getting job, but he knows what - _who_ - he wants, and that's close enough.

She blinks at him curiously before she smiles softly. "Hm. Maybe you do." When she looks at him the way she does, he can't help but wonder if he's been doing as good a job of disguising his feelings as he initially thought. "I'm a little jealous, to be honest."

"What?" he asks, trying not to sound too shocked. "Of…"

Glimmer sees his eyes travel in the direction that the other two disappeared, and she laughs. "No. Definitely not. Not them. The couple from twelve - the girl on fire and her lover boy. They get to be so openly affectionate, and it pays off. They get sponsor items for holding each other and rave reviews for sucking face."

"Isn't that what you're doing with Cato, though?" There's no malice behind his words, no ill will or anger. It's a genuinely inquisitive question that actually startles her.

She even looks pretty when she's scowling, he thinks. "It's different when it's a romance between two people who are bound to lose, and two people who can definitely win. It's more tragic, I guess, which is appealing to people who've never experienced tragedy for themselves. It's different…" A lock of hair falls away from one of her braids; he has the urge to reach and push it back. "It's like love, what they have."

"'Like' love?"

Glimmer shrugs. "I've never been in love. I wouldn't know."

Part of him feels relieved to hear this, while the other mourns. When Marvel really thinks about it, though, does he actually love Glimmer? Doesn't he think she's just pretty? Just pretty and perfect and charming and friendly?

No, he thinks fervently, she's much more than that. If she was just a hot body and a beautiful face, he wouldn't be so angry every time he saw her and Cato together.

When Cato and Clove return, they both look worse for wear. Cato is sporting several bruises that are sure to look even more terrible in the morning, while her jacket is disheveled and her hair has been ripped out of its ponytail. Both are snarling so viciously that neither he nor Glimmer have the courage to ask about the confrontation, and the District 2 partners end up sleeping on opposite sides of the campfire. Glimmer takes up her role once more, giving him an enigmatic smile, before walking over to Cato and curling up against his body. Marvel's eyes stay glued to her figure until he's sure she's asleep.

He's cold and irritated and just angry when he rolls over onto his side. Clove doesn't get to be jealous. Clove doesn't deserve to be because she has Cato, regardless of who he has his arms around and lips on. Clove is closer to Cato even when she's laying on the other side of the fire, than Glimmer who's snuggled against his side with her hands on his chest. Cato is an ass and Clove is a psychopath, but the two have each other even in this death-ridden Hunger Games.

All Marvel has is his want and his desire and his jealousy. He'll be far away from Glimmer as long as she keeps the distance between them, and she's the smartest of them all - she'll never give in to her emotions. Everything she does, everything she's done, has a purpose. So it doesn't matter why she's with Cato or if she actually likes Marvel or she wants to be _normal_ and have a _normal_ romance like the star-crossed lovers. To Glimmer, jealousy is just a word.

To people like Clove and Marvel, it's much more dangerous.


End file.
